Snowy Weekend Recap

While I would be content with not going back to work tomorrow, part of me is happy for the excuse to leave the house. I began to develop cabin fever pretty bad on Friday. We got out of the house for a few minutes.

A cherry limeade makes everything better.

There were several crazies on the road, so we didn't stay out long.

Poor Nuts, the snow was so high Friday night that he just had to wade through it.

This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning.

I think we need to tear these down. I have given Nuts some stern talks about staying away

from the side of the house.

A big bowl of snow for snow icecream!
I think we need to invest in some snow boots for Ty.
Attempting to get Nuts to follow me.

We got out and about on Saturday afternoon. The sun had been shining all day and the roads were wet, but not frozen. We headed to Wal-Mart to spend some Christmas giftcards.

Sunday school was cancelled, but we did have church. The roads were much worse than on Saturday. No sunshine today. I'm just thankful that we never lost power. My parents, siblings and Ty's parents and brother have been without power for days now.

Food cooked and consumed:

The all new Domino's pizza. The crust is to die for. I am craving it right now.

Potato Soup

Chipotle Chocolate Chili

Snow Ice Cream

100 lbs. of homeade chocolate chip cookies and girl scout cookies

Ty and I had a few relaxing snowed in days, and I am probably 10 lbs. heavier. Time for the real world.

Ice Storm 2010

We had been hearing about this big storm that was going to hit all week. Well, it is finally here.
I became sick with a cold on Wednesday and called in sick yesterday. Our school/work closed on Thursday at noon and is closed today. It is not much fun to be sick while work is closed. :(

At least we still have power! My parents and Ty's parents are in the complete opposite corner of the state and are out of power. Ty's mom has been sending us pictures of their fallen trees. It is so sad and reminds me of our 2007 ice storm.

Pics from my MIL

Whenever I am stuck at home everything revolves around food. I made Megan's mom's potato soup yesterday. Yummy! We ordered the new Domino's Pizza for dinner and Ty braved the roads to go pick it up. His jeep handles really well on the ice and it wasn't too bad out there at this time. It was good pizza! The crust tastes just like breadsticks. Of course, I have consumed my weight in chocolate chip cookies and girl scout cookies.

I am obviously not one of those people who lose their appetite when they are sick.
I have a busy schedule today of reading the Feb. issue of Southern Living, watching Julie&Julia, painting my nails, researching vacation spots. It is a rough life. Now the power lines better cooperate!

Easy Peasy Pork Chops

I started a blog design site. It can be rather nerve wracking to put yourself out there, but I figured what the heck. I love having new hobbies & starting new ventures. You can check it out here.

Now for the good stuff...
These chops are my go to "company's comin'" meal.

Ingredients:
1 lb. pork chops
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 worcestershire
2 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. black pepper

Combine all ingredients and marinate. The original recipe said 12 hours. I have done anything from 20 minutes to 4 hours. It doesn't make a huge difference.

Then grill. It is really the only way to enjoy meat. I beg Ty to grill all year long. He doesn't always agree.

jeggings

Jeans+Leggings=Jeggings.

I had been hearing things about jeggings and was intrigued. Skinny jeans that feel like leggings, sign me up. I started searching the internet and found several pairs of designer jeggings, but this wife of a med student's budget did not agree with the price of such a trendy item. I finally found several pairs on Kohls and placed an order.

I ordered a pair of Levi's and a pair of Mudd. The Mudds were a last minute impulse. I realize I am not 13, but they looked decent online. The Levi's looked great in person, but were way too big in the waist. I hate pants that fit tight in the thighs, but gap a ridiculous amount in the waist. I seem to have that problem with a lot of pants. Perhaps, a few more lunges are in order.
The Mudds fit me great. I would definitely recommend ordering true to size or even a size smaller than you think. These things have a lot of stretch to them.

I mainly wanted a pair to wear with tall boots. They fit very slim around the calf and fit perfectly into a pair of boots without all the scrunching. I even wore them the other day with flats.

I had Ty snap a quick pic of me on my way out the door. This was at 7:15 am, so pardon the dim lighting. Oh and it was VERY casual Friday. I couldn't post about the jeggings without a picture and at the time thought I would have a chance to write this post on my lunch hour. Turns out you can't do that when your entire network, including Internet is down. It was down from about 10 am to who knows when. It was working this morning. I digress...

This is the back view.
Have you all bought jeggings? Will you?

Weekend Recap

Friday Ty and I headed to Wal-Mart to find a couple of Wii games. No such luck. They had been picked over. So instead we picked up a movie from Redbox. I have to say The Hangover was even more funny the second time around.

Saturday I have been wanting a comfy, curl up and read a book chair for our living room. I was perusing Craigslist and came across a listing for a furniture auction. I was intrigued and tried to get Ty to come with me, but he is lame and was studying. I had no idea what to expect from this place. It was a huge warehouse filled with gorgeous furniture. They auctioned off everything piece by piece.

I love the simplicity of this couch and the nail head trim.

I found this amazing living room group and fell in love with the club chair. It was really comfy and the most supple leather I have ever felt on furniture. I was incredibly nervous when it came time to bid. I had been watching people bid for the last hour, but I was nervous I was going to commit a big auction faux pas. It turns out it didn't matter, because the bidding went out of my price range.

I didn't get a picture of the chair, but I found this picture of the

whole group on the auction website.

Sunday We had our Sharing&Caring group from church over for lunch. It is hard to cook for a group following church services. I didn't want them to be waiting around forever for the food. I ended up serving a cheese, cracker & grapes tray, pork chops, roasted potatoes, green beans, salad, bread and chocolate chip cookies. Turns out I have no idea how to cook for more than 2-3 people. I have a ton of leftovers!
(I thought I had posted the pork chop recipe on here, but I couldn't find it to link to this post. I will have to post it later this week.)

I heart thin mints

It is girl scout cookie time!! I love this time of the year. I bought a box of thin mints and a box of tagalongs. I usually buy a box of samoas, but I need to limit myself.


Growing up everyone in my family hated mint flavored things. I loved this about my family. It meant more for me! I always knew I had a whole box of cookies all to myself. Ty has never really cared for chocolate mint food before...until now. Um, I don't think he got the memo that I don't share my thin mints. I guess I will learn to share with him.

The poor box of tagalongs are being neglected at the moment.

I had lunch with Megan today. (She has the cutest baby bump!) It took a lot of willpower for me to ignore the great selection of desserts. But I knew how many girl scout cookies would be consumed tonight, so I had to resist.

I completed a new blog design for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's blog.

Sarah requested something that wasn't too girly and reflected their farm life and her hobby of crafting. She has been embroidering a lot lately, so I was very excited to find this font.

Weekend Recap

Friday My parents stayed the night with us. My mom took Ty & I to Sam's. I love that place. I could get carried away with buying in bulk. Chesley came over and we all played Apples to Apples. Ches and Ty had a good time challenging in each in Wii Sports. It was quite amusing.

Saturday We went to my nephew's first birthday party. He is such a cutie.

Wearing his new hat from my parents and opening his tractor from my sister.

Sunday Ty and I had a relaxing day at home. We went to a few furniture stores, but had no luck. I want a comfy reading chair for our living room.

Monday Our school was closed today in honor of MLK day. I have spent the day at Target, catching up on shows, cleaning, etc. Ty is on a psychiatry rotation and had to work today. He is working with troubled teens. He sent me this text today, "The kids are calling me the sexy intern. You should be worried." haha!

I could get really used to these long weekends!

Books and Comfort Food

Ty bought me a series of books by Francine Rivers, called Mark of the Lion for my birthday.* One of my favorite books is Redeeming Love written by Rivers, so I was very excited to receive these. There are three books in this series and I am on the last book. They are full of history and center on Rome when it was at the height of its power. It took me a while to adjust to the first book, because it contained so much historical and background information. A little different than my vampire books and chick lit.

The last time we were in our hometown my MIL made a chicken and dumplings recipe from the January issue of Southern Living. I was a little hesitant when she told me this is what she was making. I had made chicken and dumplings last winter and it turned out awful. This recipe was so different than the one I tried and it was YUMMY. It definitely hit the spot.

I forgot to take a pic of my dish, so you will have to make do with an iPhone pic of my magazine.
Why is my magazine so wrinkled, you ask? Well, someone in my house might have spilled a thermos of coffee all over our coffee table and it wasn't me.

This is an easy version of the classic recipe.

1 (32 oz.) container low-sodium chicken broth
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 can reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
1 (10.2 oz.) can refrigerated jumbo buttermilk biscuits
2 carrots, diced
3 celery ribs, diced

1. Bring first 4 ingredients to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high; return to a low boil.

2. Place biscuits on a lightly flowered surface or on wax paper. Roll or pat each biscuit to 1/8-inch thickness; cut into 1/2-inch wide strips.

3. Drop strips, 1 at a time, into boiling broth mixture. Add carrots and celery. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent dumplings from sticking.

*My birthday was in November. I didn't want to cause confusion since I had blogged about two of my birthday presents two days in a row.

Legally Blonde the Musical

My brother bought me tickets to see Legally Blonde the Musical for my birthday.

Of course, Chesley was the obvious choice to take with me. Ty, notsomuch.
We bundled up and headed downtown to eat at an organic mexican restaurant beforehand. Who knew organic and mexican food could go together?!

(My shirt was purple, not blue like the 1st pic makes it look.)

The musical was very cute and we couldn't stop singing one of the songs, Omigod You Guys. In fact, I have been singing it so much that Ty just sang a line. haha! I should add, I only know one line and it is the title. Ty has been a little annoyed to say the least.

Thanks for the thoughtful gift Derek!

more changes, really!?!

Yes, I realize I changed my blog design not too long ago, but I needed some new color. My house is feeling empty since the Christmas decor is gone. I think it might be too early for me to bring in some spring color. (Although, I am slowly bringing it in. Who can resist green apples in an apothecary jar?)

Then, I thought why not spruce up the ole blog. It doesn't require me spending money on house decor and I enjoy learning new html things. So there you have it.
I will be adding more to the navigation bar along the top in the coming days. I'm sure you are all on pins and needles.

noreply@blogger

**This is a republished post. I have wanted to respond to several people lately (cough, Whitney, cough) that do not have this. Hopefully, this will be helpful to someone.**

I LOVE receiving comments! It makes my day to open my gmail account and see an e-mail notification of a new comment. I also love to reply to your comments from my e-mail account. But sometimes when I hit reply instead of seeing your e-mail address I see noreply-comment{at}blogger{dot}com and I can't reply. When I reply to other people I can see their e-mail address and the response automatically goes to their e-mail. This is extremely helpful when people ask me questions in a comment. It is so much easier to reply this way than to have to go to their blog and leave a comment or search for their e-mail address.


If you would like people to be able to email you back after you leave a comment, here's how you change those settings.

1. Click on the Customize link in the upper right hand corner of your screen.
2. Click on the Dashboard link in the upper right hand corner of your screen.
3. Click on Edit Profile, which is on the left hand side of the screen next to your picture.

4. This will take you to the Edit User Profile screen.
5. Look in the Privacy section.
6. Check the box that says, "Show my email address".

7. In the Identity section, enter in an email address.
8. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on Save Profile.

When you add your e-mail address in the above spot, it does not change the e-mail address that you use to log-in. I'm assuming that most of you have a personal e-mail address and generic blog e-mail address. I entered my generic blog e-mail address in that spot. My personal e-mail address is still where I recieve notifications of new comments and it is what I use to log in to blogger.

Pretty easy!

{you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.}

Weekend Recap

Ty and I had a low key NYE. We saw Avatar (great movie--did not think I would like it, but I did). We spent the rest of the night playing Wii. It was a perfect way to ring in the new year.

We went to a movie theater that we had never been to before. Each row had a table in front of the chairs. Loved it.

I wore leggings and a long sweater and with my feet propped up on the table
I felt like I was at home in my jammies.

Friday morning we headed to to our hometown (after a missing iPhone scare) to see Ty's grandparents. We missed seeing them on Christmas due to the weather and road conditions.

Saturday morning I headed to town (you know you are from a small town when you have to head to the big town to run your errands) with my parents. I'm so glad my mom remembered that an OrangeTree had just opened up a month ago. My parents had never been before and they were not disappointed. SO yummy! I can't wait for one to open up in my city.

We watched the OSU game with Ty's parents and then headed home. Ty's other set of grandparents live half-way in between our hometown and the city we currently live in. We got to stop by and see them for a quick dinner. It was a weekend full of family.